In January 1925, only a dog sled run could stop a diphtheria outbreak in Nome, Alaska. The necessary medicine was over 600 miles away in Nenana, Alaska. Sled teams raced in relays passing the serum from one team to the next.
Sixty-seven miles from Nome, musher Gunnar Kasson and his dog team led by Balto, took the serum and tried to wait out a blizzard. When the blizzard continued, he had no choice. Gunnar took off heading for the next team, thirty-four miles away. They crossed the Topok River in winds reaching eighty miles an hour. Gunnar couldn’t see. It was up to Balto to find the way. He raced in whiteout conditions, over ice, and in darkness with the temperature falling to -36 degrees.
When they reached the relay station there were no lights on and their replacement team was asleep. Exhausted, Gunnar, Balto, and their team had to keep going. They had to reach Nome, twenty-one miles away.
On February 2, Balto led the team into Nome bringing the lifesaving serum. He and Gunnar Kassen became heroes overnight. Newspapers across the country told their story the next day.
A statue stands in Central Park in New York commemorating Balto and the 1925 serum run. On the plaque are these words: Dedicated to the indomitable spirit of the sled dogs that relayed antitoxins 660 miles over rough ice, across treacherous waters, through Arctic blizzards from Nenana to the relief stricken Nome in the winter of 1925.
Images Courtesy of Wiki Commons
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